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I’m Keren, a church planter’s wife and momma to two littles based in MNL, PH. I spend my spare time reading and collecting books, drinking coffee or watching Neflix. I will attempt to homeschool my active tot this year while I perpetually declutter my home.

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Beginning Our Homeschool Journey

I am not a professional teacher. My training was Computer Science in university, and Biblical Studies for my post-grad. But I have always loved teaching. And this was one of the primary reasons why I entered seminary almost 10 years ago.

Teaching the Bible to adults is quite different from teaching little children, I tell you. So when I became a mama about five years ago, I was convinced that it was my calling to teach and train my firstborn. She wasn’t as keen as I hoped she would be so I pushed homeschooling to the side. I recently learned that it may because of a learning disability. I will write about that some other time. Now that I have grown older and wiser (hopefully), I am eager to restart homeschooling with my toddler who just turned 2 years old last week, and supplement my prechooler’s phonics education using the Orton-Gillingham approach.

I have held Classical Education in high esteem ever since I was first introduced to Dorothy Sayer’s essay, The Lost Tools for Learning. Like Sayers, I too believe that children are like sponges. Just as in the Reformed tradition where children are catechized with Biblical doctrine during their tender years, Classical Education also seeks to provide the knowledge base that is foundational to their living in and enjoying God’s world. This why I’m going through the Classical route, even though I have been tempted to explore other more child-centered approaches like Montessori.

I’ll be adapting “The Classical Preschool” by Living and Learning at Home. But I’ll be trimming down the curriculum into four days (Tuesdays to Thursdays).

Here’s what I hope to do with my two year old this year:

Day 1: Read Out Loud + Narration

Day 2: Memorize

Day 3: Manipulate

Day 4: Explore

Since Day 1 (Read Out Loud) and Day 4 (Narration) in the original curriculum was related to each other, I decided to combine the two. My toddler thoroughly enjoys reading with me, and I wish to do something more systematic to improve his speech and vocabulary. It is my hope that he can string more words in the coming weeks because of this activity.

I have originally wanted to use A Year of Playing Skilfully as suggested by Classical Academic Press. But the curriculum is just way out of budget for us right now. Plus, I have to admit that I am not a very tedious person who will prepare crafts and activities ahead of time. I am very practical, and prefer ready-made resources whenever possible. I’ll be using what I already have at home, that is June Oberlander’s Slow and Steady Get Me Ready for our Explore day. This book is also recommended in The Well-Trained Mindby one of the classical homeschooling pioneer, Susan Wise Bauer.

My aim is to learn while I teach my two kids. I also want to document the highlights of our homeschooling experience, and hopefully introduce the beauty of Classical Christian Education to the rest of the Filipino people.